Lynette Priest

Work/ Volunteer experience

I have worked in education in both secondary schools and college as both a counsellor, and a learning support assistant. In these jobs, I focus on people with special needs and behavior issues. I have a great understanding of how it is for both students and staff. At one of the schools, I run an after school 6th form drop in, enabling me to work with the demands and diverse range of issues on hand. In addition, I am also diagnosed with dyslexia , which helps me to have a real understandingof neurodiversity and its super powers. When working for the children's hospice counselling service, I counselled children and young people 6 to 18 online, by telephone and face to face. I led a psychoeducational 6 week group in a local school and visited IPU to support a children's group.

I have extensive experience supporting those with pre, post life limiting illness and those suffering with bereavement at both a hospice and a cancer support center with both adults, young people and children.

I counsel a variety of people with a variety of issues including complex grief, such as cancer patients, loss of parents, loss of adult or young children, loss of grandparents, loss through miscarriage's and still birth, loss through suicide, loss through murder, loss of friends, loss of partners, loss of pets and wider family. In my role I also provide initial assessments for a good share of our waiting list, holding calls to support those waiting and weekly mentor our student/volunteer counselors to reach their best potential and ensure they are safe in their role and share my experience.

Working creatively

Beyond simple talking therapy, I like to work creatively. For instance , I encourage the use of mind maps, drawing, painting, using play mobile, writing letters, writing poems, collages, and mood boards. We humans are social beings, so creativity can have the function of helping the client to meet new people who are like-minded and have had similar experiences. It may help a student that feels isolated or lonely to make friends or become part of a community. It may help someone quiet come out their shell and increase social skills.

CYP often lack motivation and a sense of achievement in their adolescence. By working with creativity, you will empower these people, giving a sense of achievement, discovery of identity and higher self-esteem. It provides a focus or refocus on what they are doing, so they are not busy worrying or experiencing negative emotions. It can increase their sense of freedom and choice in the world, when they may otherwise feel powerless and under the control of family or education.

For more severe mental health issues, it can be used to help a client process trauma by being able to express how they feel, especially when they find it more difficult to find the words. It is a way of expressing what's going on in a way that may not be possible in everyday conversation, or it may even be something unconscious or suppressed being realized.

Free 30 minute initial assessment to see if we would like to work together.